


A Lilly in the Wasteland

by Leighabel



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Brain Damage, F/M, Friendship, Memory Loss, pre-war ghoul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-12 00:04:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13535403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leighabel/pseuds/Leighabel
Summary: During a night of fun and relaxation at Castle, Hancock gets an urgent message and he runs off. The following morning, Nora heads after him to check on her friend and finds out that there are more sides to her flirtatious jokester than she knew.





	A Lilly in the Wasteland

A night of jokes, stories, drinks, and friends. All sitting in my office at Castle. No reason, no point, just enjoying the moment for once. It’d been Hancock’s idea. Said I needed to relax. I told I couldn’t leave Castle, so be brought the party to me. He’d been running around with me for months, we’ve become close friends, knows I never take a break. He says it’ll kill me, he’s probably right. I needed this. It’s late, we’re all a little drunk when one of my men runs in. He’s sweating, looks scared as he hands a note to Hancock.

I’d seen Hancock sad, when he told me about his brother, about how he became a ghoul. It was rare to not see a smile or smirk on his face. When he looks at this note, though, his face drops. He seems to sober up instantly and stands up suddenly and rushes out without saying a thing. I stand, tipsy and wobbly and walk out. I go to quarters to see him packing.

“You good?” I slur, worried but too tipsy to really be helpful.

He pauses and looks up, pausing as he looks at me. A smile is put on his face and he nods. “Of course, sister. I just need to head back to Good Neighbor, major stuff. Head back in there and enjoy the night.” He pats me on the head and heads out.

When I woke up in the morning I was worried, along with a hangover. In the morning I wished I’d pushed, tried to help. In the morning I packed up and headed for him. But that night I just did what he said and returned to my friends.

It wasn’t a long walk to Good Neighbor. A few hours and I was walking through the city gates. It was like everything was the same, people walking around, shops were open, everything was good. I walked up to the State House, opening the door and walking up to Hancock’s office. Fahrenheit was relaxing on the couch and looks up at me when I walk in.

“Oh hi, vaulty.” She takes a sip of her beer.

“Hi… Where’s Hancock?” I look around.

She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Oh, vaulty… Find the house with all the ‘watch outside.” She takes another sip and walks out of the room.

I sigh and head down the stairs, walking the street. At the end of one ally is like Fahrenheit said, most if not all of the Neighborhood Watch. They were guarding the only door in his ally. A pale pink door of a very well preserved pale blue house. It looks like it is kept up to date. If I wasn’t so out of the way it would stick out in the grimy city it was a part of. I walk up and the guards look at me and nods, moving to the side as I walk up and open the door. I head down the hall looking around when I hear soft sobbing and Hancock’s voice coming from a room. I pause.

“Hush sweetpea. It’s ok. I’m here…” His voice was softer than I had ever heard it. He wasn’t joking or flirting. It was strange. He called everyone brother, sister, sunshine. I’d never heard sweetpea. “I know it’s scary…” He says softly. “But it’s ok…”

“Why?” A soft, feminine voice sobs.

“Because the people in charge back then sucks… and they didn’t care about how they affected the little people.” He replies. It’s what he said about the world before, about the war. I open the door slowly, not making a sound.

There sits Hancock, holding a small ghoul in his arms. She wears a pale pink dress, a wig of golden curls lays on the ground. It was hard to see her because her small body was encased in Hancock’s arms. Her face was buried in his chest as she sobbed. Though the back of her head was a large scar.

I close the door and knocks. “I said to leave me alone,” Hancock calls, almost angry from inside.

“It’s me, Hancock.” I cross my arms and look around as hushed whispers go on inside and then Hancock opens the door, stepping out.

His shirt was wet, from the girl’s tears. “Hi, sister…”

He walks away from the door and down the hall. As we walked I noticed how nice the house was. It reminded me of home, prewar. The wallpaper was mostly intact, furniture as well. Paintings on the walls, books on the shelf. It was like traveling back in time. He leads me into the main living room, taking a seat and motioning to the chair across from him.

“Have a seat sister…” He looks down and I take the seat. “What are you doing here?” He looks up at me and then back down the hall.

“You left so suddenly, I was worried,” I say. “So who’s place is this?” I look around.

“A friend… A friend needed help.” He says. He wasn’t joking or smiling. This felt wrong.

“I can see that.” I motion to his shirt.

He looks down and nods before standing, looking behind me. I turn around to see the small girl walking out. Her dress was clean, her wig on her head, the soft golden curls falling around her shoulders. A pale purple bow in her hair. She had some makeup, not too much, pale nude lipstick and soft pink eyeshadow with delicately winged black eyeliner. She gave off that feeling of delicateness all around her. Her skin scared like all ghoul, though over her face were many other scares. Some deeper, some lighter. She was pretty, it was care that as a human she would have been lovely. She hugs herself, as she walks into the room.

“Sweetpea,” Hancock says, walking over and touching her arms. “You don’t have to be out here, you should be resting.”

She looks up at him and blinks. “But we have a guest John… I can’t just…” She looks down at me and then back to him.

He nods and wraps an arm around her back, holding her close to his side. I’d seen many girls with Hancock, seen him flirt countless time. This was different. He held her protectively, gently and lovingly. He cared about her, I could see it in his eyes.

“Nora this is Lilliana, Sweetpea this is Nora. Nora leads the Minutemen, a group of people who fights to protect the little people. She’s also kinda my boss.” He smirks and nods.

I stand and shakes Lilliana’s hand. She smiles, her back eyes meeting mine. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Nora.” She had to be pre-war.

“And you.” I smile and looks to Hancock before looking back to her. “You have a lovely home.”

Lilliana smiles wider. “Oh thank you! John has found me all these lovely things. He helps me keep everything up and running.” She looks up at Hancock, his eyes looking down at her and he nods.

“She keeps this place sparkling though. How about you go make some tea? I know Nora loves tea.” Hancock says softly with a gentle smile.

She nods. “Of course.” She heads over to the kitchen and Hancock takes his seat again.

“She’s lovely,” I say softly.

“She really is…” He sighs and looks down at his hands. “She’s pre-war… Used to live in Diamond city. She um… She used to teach the children at the school. I’ve known her my entire life. For a long time, she was like a big sister to me. She was always so understanding of me, even as a punk kid.” He looks over at her. Then I got older than her. Not like really… But she stopped aging at 22… So you know.” He sighs and looks back at his hands. “She finally thought of me as an adult… She and I were close friends. She was always there for me…” He takes a deep breath. “But you know what happened… Ghouls got run out… Lots of people died. She almost did. I found her beaten half to death. I was able to get her to Amari and she lived… But she was in a coma for a month. When she woke up she had memory problems. Sometimes she thinks she’s back prewar, sometimes she has no memory before a week ago… She works with Amari but Amari thinks it’s not going to change.” He looks up at me.

“I see…” I say, knowing there was more.

He looks back to the kitchen and then to me. “When she forgets stuff after the war… Um… She gets scared, doesn’t remember why she looks the way she does. She um… she has hurt herself in the past... I know seeing me helps. So I have the watch look out of it and send me a message. This one was bad. She didn’t remember anything at all…” He looks back at her as she pours the tea. “I’m worried it’s getting worse with time…” He finishes as she walks over, placing down the tray.

“Here we are.” She smiles and sits next to him. He instinctively wraps an arm around her shoulder. She takes her tea. “I didn’t know what you wanted to I brought milk and sugar.” She motions to the small containers.

“Thank you, Lilliana.” I nod and make my tea the way I like it.

“So you and John go on lots of adventures? That must be fun.” She smiles and sips her tea.

“Oh let's not talk about work.” Hancock laughs and pulls her closer. “You know sweetpea, Nora is prewar too. Nora was on ice.”

She looks at me with wide eyes. “Really?”

I nod. “Yup, frozen in a vault.”

“That's amazing…” She says softly.

“You so you two can chat about all that prewar stuff.” He nods to me and then looks down at her as her face lights up.

“Really? Is that alright?” She looks up at me and I nod.

“Of course…” I nod. I didn’t really care, I wasn’t one to focus on the ways things used to be, but I could see how important this was to Hancock.

We chatted for hours, the sunset, Lilliana made dinner and then Hancock and I headed out to the State House.

“Thank you, Nora, it was lovely to meet you!” Lilliana waves from the door. I wave back.

Hancock and I didn’t talk till we reached his office and were sat on his couch. “Thanks for that sister. She needed that… I think it really helped.”

“She means a lot to you… More than just a sister huh?” I say, leaning back, drinking my beer.

He sighs. “I did say ‘used to’...” He leans back and takes a hit of jet. “I love her Nora… And it hurts. I started to fall for her before the shit in Diamond City happened. But I don’t deserve her. I couldn’t keep her safe and I couldn't save so many others. So I look out of her, help how I can, but nothing more.” He sighs.

“She cares about you too. I see it in the way she looks at you, leans against you.” I shrug and take another sip.

“She deserves better than me, sister. I won’t leave her stuck with a junkie like me.” He shrugs. “I just need to help her until she can find someone else. Then she’ll be happy and safe.”

I put down my beer and into his eyes. “She looks pretty safe and happy with you.”

“Yeah yeah…” He takes another hit of jet and closes his eyes.

I knew nothing I could say would change anything tonight so I let it go, for now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I had this idea randomly and spent four classes writing and editing this because I'm the best student. I think I may write more about this OC later but who knows. I say I'll write a lot of stuff and than oooooops. Well, I hope you guys liked it!


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